Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

RMBP dismounts/ejects USB3 drives on right Port

Woodcrest64

Woodcrest64

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 14, 2006
1,332
570
My retina macbook pro after being updated to 10.8.2 dismounts my USB3.0 portable Western Digital hard disk on the right port. The left port works fine. This happens if the drive is being written to. I did a SMC reset but that has not helped.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue.
 
The right USB port works flawlessly with my USB2 stick and USB2 based western digital portable hard disks just not with my usb 3.0 wd hard drive... I don't see why the right port would be any different from the left one.

Strange..
 
Try it in a different user. You could also try a reinstall of the OS.

If that doesn't work, take it into the Apple store.
 
See if you can get a chance to try it with another USB3 device, for the best testing. If that doesn't work right either, definitely get it checked out, sounds like it could be a power level problem with the port.

jW
 
Right MBP Retina Port ejecting Drives

I have been having the same problem on my 3 month old Retina MBP. Left port works fine, right ejects usb3 drives randomly. I had the IO card replaced at the Apple store, no improvement. I tried at least 5 different brands of drives and even a $36 gold plated cable.

One dousche genuis told me that it was the drives overheating and sub-par cables, and that I should only use USB3 drives that the apple store sells. So I bought I brand new G-drive from the apple store, it ejected 5 times in a row immediately after plugging it in on the right port. Totally kosher on the left. Returned the drive the same day.

Sending MBP to the apple depot to see if they can figure it out, it just sucks to be without a computer for 5-7 business days :(

Mid 2012 Macbook Retina 15.4", 2.6 Quad i7, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD. OS/X 10.8.2
 
Last edited:
Fixed my issue with my retina macbook pro and my usb 3 western digital drive. The drive would disconnect on the right port when being written to. I just installed the latest firmware from western digital from their download section. It notes in the firmware release that the older firmware had issues with intels usb controller which the macbook pro retina uses.
 
Firmware

My MBP Retina still ejects everything on the right port when doing a large copy to or from the drive. It has done this on a Seagate GoFlex, Sans Digital Enclosure, Hitachi Touro, and brand new G-Drive. Somehow WD is the ONLY company that offers a firmware update to fix it? What gives?
 
Woodcrest64 said:
My retina macbook pro after being updated to 10.8.2 dismounts my USB3.0 portable Western Digital hard disk on the right port.
SNIP
Click to expand...

Woodcrest64 said:
Fixed my issue with my retina macbook pro and my usb 3 western digital drive. The drive would disconnect on the right port when being written to. I just installed the latest firmware from western digital from their download section. It notes in the firmware release that the older firmware had issues with intels usb controller which the macbook pro retina uses.
Click to expand...

Wait a moment... If this was a problem with the firmware of the external drive enclosure, why would it appear only after updating to 10.8.2 ?

RGDS,
 
seveej said:
Wait a moment... If this was a problem with the firmware of the external drive enclosure, why would it appear only after updating to 10.8.2 ?

RGDS,
Click to expand...

I have no idea why. There was a separate update for the Air and MacBook Pro regarding USB device compatibility which I also downloaded but it didn't fix it.
 
Hey Risottto,

Just wondering how your retina MacBook Pro is doing with your USB port on the right side and if you have tried anything else to get it to work. I'm still having issues with mine but from what I've read online it seems to be as if the right port is shared with the FaceTime camera along with the Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad.

I've also noticed that my USB 2 card reader which is powered by the USB hub on for the MacBook Pro also ejects at random time to time.

However my 2 TB external Seagate hard drive that has its own AC power adapter works flawlessly on the right port.
 
I'm wondering about returning my rMBP for genius to look at. Aside from USB audio devices not working on the usb ports (great if that is you line of work, like me), my external hard drives (g drives) randomly eject when in use.
I use a thunderbolt-firewire adaptor to avoid the problem but there is clearly something wrong here.

Mountain Lion 10.8.3
 
I've read that sometimes doing a SMC reset will clear things up. My rMBP USB ports are solid. The only time I have an issue with drives disconnecting is when hard drives are connected to the rMBP via a cheap USB 3 Hub (solid connection via Belkin Hub).
 
Thanks for the advice. I already tried the SMC reset, but no good i'm afraid. It did fix crackly onboard audio though (same rMBP ><)

Well, i've been using a couple of different (Belkin and Logik) USB hubs in order to make USB audio devices work. There is a thread here regarding that somewhere. It seems that using these hubs drops the ports down to USB 2 and for some reason that solves the issue. It also solves the hard disk eject problem being discussed here.

What is new though, as far as I can tell, is that now I have had a chance to test the variety of USB problems with my rMBP again, it seems that since I last checked the USB audio problem has gone. This could have been the firmware update that came around April, or Mountain Lion 10.8.3. I have installed both since that time.

However, minus hubs, the HD eject problem on the right hand port remains. I wonder if new rMBPs still suffer from this. If so, would it be worth looking for a replacement under Applecare... I wonder.

FYI: G-Technology G-Safe drive ejecting today. However G-Raid, on USB, working fine. (though the G-Safe is dreadful in many ways)
 
My relatively new Belkin 4 port USB 3.0 Power Hub does not drop down to USB 2.0. I get the same speed to/from the SSD disk (~260MBps) direct connected to the rMBP or via the hub. I happen to be using the right USB port.

There have been a large number of hubs produced that don't implement the USB 3.0 spec properly and have caused issues when used with a Mac (the hub in my new 2013 model LG monitor for example). Some hubs are firmware upgradable, others are throw away.

When you connect a USB 2.0 device to a USB 3.0 hub, its connection through to the host is USB 2.0. The other devices run 3.0. Thats just how the USB 3.0 hub is suppose to work (it has some smarts inside). Some hubs work better than others.
 
risottto said:
My MBP Retina still ejects everything on the right port when doing a large copy to or from the drive. It has done this on a Seagate GoFlex, Sans Digital Enclosure, Hitachi Touro, and brand new G-Drive. Somehow WD is the ONLY company that offers a firmware update to fix it? What gives?
Click to expand...

Risotto, just wondering if you have an update on your Retina Macbook pro ejecting usb drives. Mine is still doing it even after 'another' firmware update from WD. My SDDR 189 card reader from sandisk also still ejects on the right usb port.

Left port is perfect still. I did try putting Lion back but that was REALLY bad. It was ejecting both devices as soon as I plugged them in. With ML 10.8.3 it will work sometimes for an hour with out a problem. So it seems to be a software problem.
 
So I have made some head way regarding this odd problem. Turns out my memory card reader is fine I think. My memory card reader will eject on the right port using a 4GB Lexar 133X professional CF card but NOT on the left USB port. However ALL 3 of my sandisk CF cards work fine in the reader on both USB ports. These 3 cards range from all different speeds from 15MB/sec to 30MB/sec. My lexar is 20MB/sec rated. Go figure!? Apparently this has happen to other people over on DPREVIEW.COM in their forums.

As for the Western Digital My passport USB 3.0 drive I have come to the conclusion its the drive and not the port. Reading through various forums on Anandtech, Apple Support and the Western Digital website forum many people have had issues with these drives on USB 3 ports on both Windows and on the Mac.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2302617

http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-PC/My-Passport-2TB-USB-3-0-keeps-randomly-disconnecting-HELP/td-p/477224
 
Last edited:
I picked up a Seagate USB 3 portable drive today and its working like a charm on both usb ports. The interesting thing is it uses less power than the WD one. The WD usb powered USB3 drive uses 224ma where the seagate says 36ma. Yeah you read that correctly, its 36ma for the Seagate USB 3 drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back